We are unabashed fans of both Craig Robinson and Adam Scott, both of whom have made us laugh in shows likeThe Office, Party Down, Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and a bunch of others. So would a show where the two of them play reluctant partners chasing down the paranormal make us bust a gut? Read on to find out what we think of FOX’s new comedyGhosted.

A Guide to Our Rating System

Opening Shot: The opening of a pilot can set a mood for the entire show (think Six Feet Under); thus, we examine the first shot of each pilot.The Gist: The “who, what, where, when, why?” of the pilot.Our Take: What did we think? Are we desperate for more or desperate to get that hour back?Sex and Skin: That’s all you care about anyway, right? We let you know how quickly the show gets down and dirty.Parting Shot: Where does the pilot leave us? Hanging off a cliff, or running for the hills?Sleeper Star: Basically, someone in the Ghosted cast who is not the top-billed star who shows great promise.Most Pilot-y Line: Pilots have a lot of work to do: world building, character establishing, and stakes raising. Sometimes that results in some pretty clunky dialogue.Our Call: We’ll let you know if you should, ahem, Stream It or Skip It.

GHOSTED

Opening Shot: A shot of a warehouse in Los Angeles; then we see an agent running through being shot at by some strange gun. Then he find a strange power-source on the roof; as he runs out, he creates a video asking for it to be sent to Prof. Max Jennifer (Scott) and Det. Leroy Wright (Robinson). Then he gets sucked in.

The Gist: Max is currently working at a bookstore, telling people that his wife got abducted by aliens — which of course makes people run away. Leroy is a mall security guard whose most challenging job is mopping up pee if the homeless people there miss the fountain. But soon both are knocked out and find themselves in a windowless truck on the way to some unknown place.

FOX

Turns out that the guy in the video works for a secret government agency called the Bureau Underground, that strives to save humanity from extraterrestrials and other paranormal threats. They’re sent by Capt. Ava Lafrey (Ally Walker) to find the agent. Of course, the case isn’t the thing here, as the two reluctant partners spend time together; Max wanting to know why Leroy left the LAPD, and Leroy rolling his eyes at anything that has to with aliens or the multiverse — he’s there because he’s the best missing-persons investigator the LAPD had.

They eventually find the agent and the energy source he found; they end up fighting a large power plant employee who can take off his head, and Max sees a real life alien spaceship carry the agent and whatever possessed the employee away. They join the agency because they both want to get to the bottom of this mystery.

Our Take: We wanted this to be so much funnier than it was. Teaming up Robinson and Scott, in a show where both are executive producers, seems like the comedy equivalent of Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge hitting back-to-back. And the scenes where they get to riff off each other in a semi-improvisational fashion is when the show sings. For instance, a riff on Max objecting to lifting the larger Leroy to look through a vent grating was funny, as was the two of them clumsily improvising being copy repairmen to get into the power plant, complete with Max punctuating things by saying “And… scene!”

But when Robinson and Scott are running around getting shot at, or interacting with Capt. Lafrey or the other major members of the Bureau Underground? The show drags. The hope is that the show is going to develop into an ensemble, with Adeel Akhtar playing the over-explaining Dr. Barry Shaw and Amber Stevens West playing weapons expert Annie. But, really, if the bulk of the show doesn’t foster the chemistry between these two comedy A-listers, then they’re making a big mistake.

Sex and Skin: Since a bromance between Max and Leroy is at the center of the show, there isn’t much… though it’s funny when Leroy sings “Higher Love” as a way of shutting Max’s inquiries about the LAPD down.

FOX

Parting Shot: Max sees his wife in the monitor of people who have abduction stories similar to the power plant worker. Then she screams much like the possessed head of that big guy from the power plant. It definitely sets up the continuing story that will be the through-line for the show.

Sleeper Star: Akhtar was in The Big Sick, and he has potential to be funny here as a skittish doc who wants to befriend Max and Leroy.

Most Pilot-y Line: “I’m measuring just in case I need to build you body armor… or a coffin,” says Annie right after Max and Leroy wake up in the Bureau Underground HQ. “Probably just body armor.”

Our Call: Stream It. But realize we’re only recommending this based on the potential of the scenes with Scott and Robinson riffing off each other. If Ghosted starred two other actors, we would have said Skip It. But if the show knows what it has with the two of them, it’ll take off. We’re just not sure if it’s going to utilize them well.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.